Journal

Not The Freelance Leap: Sri Lanka

As you’re possibly already aware, I’m not in India writing away this week. I’m in Sri Lanka, doing not very much of anything at all. This may strike you as an altogether too relaxed approach to this freelance writing endeavour, given that we’re only in the second week.

Fair point.

It’s actually sort of an accident that things have worked out this way. Originally, this would have been the week after I left the former dayjob, and the break would have been between finishing up there and sitting down to get on with self-employment. Conveniently, it’s also my daughter’s mid-term break. Celebrating the start of the freelance thing with a short family holiday was a no-brainer.

Then I lucked out – it turned out I had unused leave days to take at work, enough to mean I was finishing a week sooner than planned. Only down side was that the planned vacation no longer marked the break between old and new. Hey ho.

Anyway, that’s how I find myself on holiday a week after going freelance. And it is an unapologetic holiday. I’m not even trying to get anything done. There’s going to be plenty of panic and self-imposed stress between now and Xmas, so for now I’ll take advantage of this here pool and villa, thank you very much.

Though I confess, this doesn’t make for an action packed second entry.

Small things have happened. Despite myself, some longhand writing has occurred. I’ve also confirmed the team for my next book, The Flesh Market – it’s the same as worked on Craven Place, with Emma Barnes on cover design and Danny Evarts on editing and interior layout. I’m hugely relieved that they’re available, as I love both the work they do and the experience of working with them. The Flesh Market is an important book for me. It may not be the only novel that’s released over the course of the year, but it’s the one that I suspect will prove the viability or not of this whole endeavour. Because it’s being released in the early part of the year, it’s the only one that I think will have time to build up a head of steam (or fizzle out completely) by September. That’s when I’ll be evaluating the year and deciding whether or not to continue. You can see then why this book is a particularly big deal…

Having talented people signed on to help it into the world is an excellent way to begin.

On Monday all this ridiculous lazing about will be at an end, and I’ll be at my laptop typing frantically. Pop back Friday and I’ll let you know how I get on.